At least 131 deaths and over 500 suspected infections have been registered in Congo-Kinshasa, according to local authorities.
Ebola cases have been confirmed in new areas of the country, a government spokesman said. Among other places, people have been reported infected in Nyakunde in Ituri province, Butembo in North Kivu and the city of Goma, writes the BBC.
Among those infected are six American citizens, including a doctor who will be taken to Germany for treatment.
Researching vaccines
The World Health Organization (WHO) is investigating whether there are vaccines or treatments that can be used to curb the outbreak.
"We are looking at what candidate vaccines or treatments are available and whether any of them could be useful during this outbreak," said Anne Ancia, WHO representative for Congo-Kinshasa, AFP reports.
The current variant of Ebola is the Bundibugyo virus, for which there are no specific vaccines or treatments. Vaccines are only available for the Zaire strain, which was identified in 1976.
Two confirmed Ebola cases and one death have also been reported from neighboring Uganda, the US CDC announced.
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was concerned about how quickly and widely the disease has spread and is holding an emergency meeting on Tuesday to discuss the outbreak.
WHO declares international emergency
On Sunday, the WHO declared an international health emergency due to the Ebola outbreak in Congo-Kinshasa and Uganda.
"I did not do this lightly. I am deeply concerned about the scale and speed of the epidemic," Ghebreyesus told the World Health Assembly in Geneva in connection with the incident.
Nearly 29,000 people were infected with Ebola during the 2014–2016 outbreak in West Africa, the largest outbreak of the virus since it was discovered in 1976.
The disease spread to countries such as Guinea and Sierra Leone, but also outside West Africa to the United States, the United Kingdom and Italy. Over 11,000 people died.
